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Sony's Yoshida speaking at Corporate Meeting: Acquisition of Bungie Represents a Major Step Forward in Becoming More Multiplatform

Tokuiten

Tokuiten

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Sony has hinted a number of times in recent years that it feels restricted by PlayStation hardware. In an interview late last year, group president Jim Ryan said that he’s “frustrated” that the company’s first-party games reach a relatively small audience. “I think some of the art our studios are making is some of the finest entertainment in the world, and to gate the audience frustrates me,” he admitted. “I’d love to see a world where hundreds of millions of people can enjoy those games.”
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www.pushsquare.com

Sony: Acquisition of Bungie Represents a Major Step Forward in Becoming More Multiplatform

Breaking down barriers
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So there it is.

I'm posting this thread for two reasons:

1) Because it's important industry news.
2) Because I've been saying for a long time that Sony's longterm business is nonexistent and PlayStation would eventually be in big trouble. Well, guess we have Sony's longterm plan now, although it's not necessarily a positive one for PlayStation as a hardware.

My number 1 question right now: Will we see Sony 1st-party games release on PC day 1 within this generation of consoles?

Anyway, very exciting, industry-shaking developments.
 
Multiplatform = PS/PC, they are just following Microsoft steps due to how profitable PC is for them, it’s a neutral ground for them to put their games in and make their IPs growth so people buy their hardware/services to play them day 1. I don’t see Sony Studios games day 1 in PC but expect the wait to be a lot shorter between PS and PC release
 
Blue Monty said:
Multiplatform = PS/PC, they are just following Microsoft steps due to how profitable PC is for them, it’s a neutral ground for them to put their games in and make their IPs growth so people buy their hardware/services to play them day 1. I Don’t see Sony Studios games day 1 in PC but expect the wait to be a lot shorter between PS and PC release
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I think they are looking into mobile as well.

Platform holders are looking to increase the number of touchpoints with their consummers/fan so that they can keep continuity even when hardware sales decline/struggles.
 
NediarPT88 said:
I think their GAAS titles could be a good indicator.

If they don't put those day 1 on PC, we can forget about single-player games anytime soon.
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The switch to multiplatform policy wise has been really recent in part due to the great performance of their titles on PC , so if the plans for multiplatform GaaS have just started last year they will not take into affect until 2024-2025+ , I wouldnt judge so quickly if a GaaS title in 2023 or early 2024 doesnt release in PC day 1, if later than that we don’t get GaaS day 1 yep I would give it 0 chance
 
If you told anyone 4 years ago Sony's boss would say this, everyone would have laugh at you o_O...
PC becoming the definitive platform in the future? PS becoming third party before Nintendo? (Hehe, remember those times?) o_Ox2
 
This was expected, to be fair the PS exclusives devaluted very fast at least here in Mexico so they need a way to sell more units in PC a full price.
 
Switch/PC is the wave of the future.

Yet more confirmation that Playstation is a legacy platform, useful for older games that are not ported but for new games going Switch/PC only is the way forward. Saves money on buying less hardware, also means that Nintendo & various PC storefronts (GOG, Steam) will earn revenue & royalties from people who adopt the same approach rather than SIE.

By contrast Microsoft owns Windows OS, makes sense for it to use Xbox Game Studios to help ensure PC users keep buying its products (Windows, Office) rather than Mac OS or linux.
 
KR_EP said:
Switch/PC is the wave of the future.
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For most consumers this has been a thing for a while, the most popular console between PC ‘gamers’ has been the Switch for obvious reasons. This also explains why Switch has been able to do well in PC heavy regions like South Korea where Xbox/PS struggle more, still think PS/Xbox Series will still be really relevant 10-15 years , the traditional console market while not growing (outside Switch) is the most stable and allows PS/Xbox to have a cut in all purchases, so timed exclusivities will still be a thing for PS imo.
 
KR_EP said:
Switch/PC is the wave of the future.

Yet more confirmation that Playstation is a legacy platform, useful for older games that are not ported but for new games going Switch/PC only is the way forward. Saves money on buying less hardware, also means that Nintendo & various PC storefronts (GOG, Steam) will earn revenue & royalties from people who adopt the same approach rather than SIE.

By contrast Microsoft owns Windows OS, makes sense for it to use Xbox Game Studios to help ensure PC users keep buying its products (Windows, Office) rather than Mac OS or linux.
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I'm sorry but that's a ludicrous take when PS4 is one of the most successful consoles of all time, PS5 is off to a blistering start and the PS ecosystem still sells a ton of software(more than Switch FWIW) and is the biggest platform for stuff like Fortnite which is available everywhere.
 
For sure @Blue Monty owning two platforms with everything available on them going forward is really ideal. Mentioned before, couple years back (after a few SIE ports that were dismissed as one offs) the announcement of Horizon Zero Dawn for PC & the press statements from SIE at the time really cemented the start of a wholesale change in terms of Playstation Studios approach. For my part, have stopped buying new games, waiting for the PC versions before making informed decisions.

Oregano said:
I'm sorry but that's a ludicrous take when PS4 is one of the most successful consoles of all time, PS5 is off to a blistering start and the PS ecosystem still sells a ton of software(more than Switch FWIW) and is the biggest platform for stuff like Fortnite which is available everywhere.
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Choice is good, people can still buy Playstation or Xbox Series hardware if they prefer to play games such as Fortnite that way (note I have a PS5 DE, plus all prior PS hardware). But these are no longer essential purchases to play an entire catalogue games as they were in the past. Legacy hardware was a strong term so I should've provided greater context in my original post that its a cheeky reference to Fifa Legacy Edition yet I fluffed the punchline.

Yes there are older games on Xbox & Playstation hardware unavailable elsewhere, particularly licensed titles or those from closed studios that may never be ported. However going forward Microsoft is already multi-platform, which also has the side benefit of helping Microsoft further cement Windows OS dominance. SIE is gradually following in its path but we'll see if they ever go day & date, establish a standard grace period or persist with sporadic announcements of PC versions.

Nintendo is the only console manufacturer left with first party exclusives on a unique platform, plus any third party exclusives which are still not on PC for whatever reason.
 
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Vikadozs said:
This was expected, to be fair the PS exclusives devaluted very fast at least here in Mexico so they need a way to sell more units in PC a full price.
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To be fair, Mexico is the strongest Xbox territory and thus not very representative. Most PS5 games have kept high prices elsewhere.

I agree it is a good idea for Sony to support PC, though.
 
Blue Monty said:
The switch to multiplatform policy wise has been really recent in part due to the great performance of their titles on PC , so if the plans for multiplatform GaaS have just started last year they will not take into affect until 2024-2025+ , I wouldnt judge so quickly if a GaaS title in 2023 or early 2024 doesnt release in PC day 1, if later than that we don’t get GaaS day 1 yep I would give it 0 chance
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Plans for multiplayer/PC were already mentioned back in 2019:

Worldwide Studios, like I say, we've been going really heavy into story-driven gaming. The power of the narrative. Big, spectacular experiences. But not a whole lot in the multiplayer side of things, I think. That's an area where you will likely see us start to make more noise in the new term.
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www.businessinsider.com

'First, best, and must': PlayStation boss Shawn Layden shares the secret recipe behind Sony’s global gaming empire

"At its heart, game production is a creative activity. And as a creative activity, it really comes down to the people behind the project."
www.businessinsider.com www.businessinsider.com

“We must support the PlayStation platform — this is non-negotiable,” says Layden. “That said, you will see in the future some titles coming out of my collection of studios which may need to lean into a wider installed base.” Additionally, the interview points out that “particularly multiplayer titles designed to be played on personal computers — may see broader distribution.”
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www.dualshockers.com

PlayStation's Shawn Layden Discusses Bringing Titles to Other Platforms

In a new interview, PlayStation's Shawn Layden discusses the possibility of bringing their titles to other platforms.
www.dualshockers.com www.dualshockers.com

Oregano said:
Technically that already happened with Predator, if I'm not mistaken?
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True, that's a first party game.

But I meant the big budget stuff coming from their own studios like ND, GG and Insominac which are all working on MP stuff.
 
IMO, this speaks to SIE feeling their 1st-party investment, which was essential to dig PS3 out of the hole it was in in the first half of its life cycle, is not making a return on investment in the way they had hoped.
Specifically, I think they dialled up the investment in 1st-party production and continued to ramp it up with PS4, but the more investment that was made, the lower their ROI per dollar spent became; higher production values had an upper limit of how it could grow sales. But since SIE has already raised expectations regarding their 1st-party output, they don’t want to dial the investment down at all and want to find more revenue sources for 1st-party content to keep it at its current level of investment.

That’s just what I see this move as being about, alongside preferring to sell games on PC in PC-heavy markets as a way to drive interest in their platform content.
 
Tokuiten said:
2) Because I've been saying for a long time that Sony's longterm business is nonexistent and PlayStation would eventually be in big trouble. Well, guess we have Sony's longterm plan now, although it's not necessarily a positive one for PlayStation as a hardware.
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The platform that has the most software sales, the lions share of many third party software sales, by far the most revenue, 2nd largest profits, one of the largest hardware sales and fastest continuous growth has a nonexistent longterm business?

I don't think what you are reading on the corporate meeting means what you think it does.

Sony's GaaS, their multiplayer worlds that they wish to have a large continuous playerbase and profit, will be on PC. They will place SP games on PC only after they have sold on Playstation first and used their hardware selling potential. Its a way to further grow they're already huge IPs and get more money.

Playstation hardware is still going to be one of the best selling, and with PSVR2, Playstation is going to be unparalelled in the hardware space.
 
I recognize there will always be a place for home consoles as there will always be a demographic that only cares about convenience and the least amount of hassle to play the latest and greatest games and doesn't want to be burdened with PC building. But I can't imagine Sony making their first party games multiplatform being anything but an acknowledgement of how unsustainable their current first party development strategy was with constantly trying to push out AAA blockbuster after AAA blockbuster.
 
Sky2High said:
I recognize there will always be a place for home consoles as there will always be a demographic that only cares about convenience and the least amount of hassle to play the latest and greatest games and doesn't want to be burdened with PC building. But I can't imagine Sony making their first party games multiplatform being anything but an acknowledgement of how unsustainable their current first party development strategy was with constantly trying to push out AAA blockbuster after AAA blockbuster.
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That's definitely the wrong conclusion. They wouldn't be heavily investing in first party studios and acquiring more if it wasn't incredibly successful.

Playstation's first party has become an industry powerhouse. They have more 20M+ sellers than most third party publishers. They sell around 50M games a year.
Since 2017, Playstation Studios revenue has pretty much doubled and Sony expects a further 30% growth in a single year. At this point, they are likely in the Top 5 pubs, competing with Ubisoft and T2 in software sales.

This is only going to get bigger as more PS studios become 2-3 team studios and through acquisitions.

The industry has also hugely praised Playstation Studio games, they win a ton of awards, get huge fanbases and attract the best AAA talent. Late PC ports allow Playstation to further grow their IP, introducing it to those who had no chance prior, and then attracting them to buy a PS5 for the sequel.
 
Blue Monty said:
Multiplatform = PS/PC, they are just following Microsoft steps due to how profitable PC is for them, it’s a neutral ground for them to put their games in and make their IPs growth so people buy their hardware/services to play them day 1. I don’t see Sony Studios games day 1 in PC but expect the wait to be a lot shorter between PS and PC release
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It also lets them reach places and people that will otherwise never give them money, because they will never buy a PlayStation.
 
ArkhamFantasy said:
Sonys first party is more profitable than ever, its not like they’re taking losses on them to sell hardware.
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Screen-Shot-2022-05-17-at-1-06-08-PM.png

2022 will also be a huge year for Sony. With many studios (ND, Insomniac, GG, SM) becoming 2-3 team studios from organic growth and their acquisition pace (Bluepoint, Firewalk, Haven, Bungie), I would not be surprised to see Sony become a Top 3 software publisher.

If they were to acquire a publisher then they would be second only to Nintendo.
 
fiendcode said:
Aniplex/Forwardworks should start doing Game Archives again but this time across PS4/5, Xbox, Switch and Steam.
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You'd THINK Sony would realize the fuckload of money they can make JUST by remastering their JP catalog on Switch. Aniplex can be the avenue for that if they want (Sony Music Japan's Unties doesn't exist anymore, they were reformed externally as Phoenixx).

I'm sure a lot of people in Japan would love to play stuff like Gravity Rush, Parappa, Wild Arms, Arc the Lad, Dark Cloud, etc. on Switch. Nothing's stopping Sony from putting those on PS+ Premium or whatever, but they have this massive market at their finger tips and frankly is their current target demographic (and really, their own leadership) at all caring about their JP legacy anymore? Evidently... not.
 
enpleinjour said:
The industry has also hugely praised Playstation Studio games, they win a ton of awards, get huge fanbases and attract the best AAA talent. Late PC ports allow Playstation to further grow their IP, introducing it to those who had no chance prior, and then attracting them to buy a PS5 for the sequel.
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As evident by Horizon 2's underwhelming launch, multimillion unit sales are misleading with Sony. If Horizon truly cultivated a large fanbase, they should have smashed and blew away the launch comparisons with Horizon 1 even with Elden Ring showing up later that launch month. Horizon 1 sold 20 million copies and yet Horizon 2 went out with a whimper. I refuse to accept the idea that "it was bad timing" that did Horizon 2 in.

And the concern I have with the PC ports is that it sets a precedent that Sony games will be on the PC. If Sony is banking on PC players getting hooked on their games and willing to dish out for a PS5 to play their exclusives when they could just wait, I'd be very curious to see how many converters they achieve.
 
ArkhamFantasy said:
Sonys first party is more profitable than ever, its not like they’re taking losses on them to sell hardware.
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Without comparing budgets to revenue earned for each of their 1st-party games, can we really say that for sure? All I think we can say for sure is that they’re generating more revenue that before and profitability for SIE is up overall, yes? But I think we’re missing a data point to get to the conclusion you’re coming to.
 
I mean is it really that hard for them to port games without Bungie? The Google streaming stuff was all running off PCs natively right so I don't see how Bungie can even help there.

Meanwhile Sony First Party games are some of the industries best selling though I guess if you compare to GTA you might say they are missing out?

Still suspect they will remain PC/PlayStation as anything beyond this hurts PlayStation a lot more.
 
unkindlynice said:
I mean is it really that hard for them to port games without Bungie? The Google streaming stuff was all running off PCs natively right so I don't see how Bungie can even help there.

Meanwhile Sony First Party games are some of the industries best selling though I guess if you compare to GTA you might say they are missing out?

Still suspect they will remain PC/PlayStation as anything beyond this hurts PlayStation a lot more.
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Bungie specifically will keep releasing games on Xbox if Sony is to be believed. Anything else should obviously be PC+PS like you say.
 
PS/PC/Mobile will be the go to for Sony especially their big AAA title in the future.

If PC is even more welcoming toward their product, then i can see Day and Date release of the games on both PS and PC there.
 
Sky2High said:
As evident by Horizon 2's underwhelming launch, multimillion unit sales are misleading with Sony. If Horizon truly cultivated a large fanbase, they should have smashed and blew away the launch comparisons with Horizon 1 even with Elden Ring showing up later that launch month. Horizon 1 sold 20 million copies and yet Horizon 2 went out with a whimper. I refuse to accept the idea that "it was bad timing" that did Horizon 2 in.

And the concern I have with the PC ports is that it sets a precedent that Sony games will be on the PC. If Sony is banking on PC players getting hooked on their games and willing to dish out for a PS5 to play their exclusives when they could just wait, I'd be very curious to see how many converters they achieve.
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HFW sold the same as HZD at launch in the UK in half the timeframe, sold a lot better in Spain and is showing much better legs than HZD, all while being notably more expensive. Apart from that, there is very little data pointing to your conclusion of underwhelming.

Terrell said:
Without comparing budgets to revenue earned for each of their 1st-party games, can we really say that for sure? All I think we can say for sure is that they’re generating more revenue that before and profitability for SIE is up overall, yes? But I think we’re missing a data point to get to the conclusion you’re coming to.
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This is bad logic. We don't get profitability data on most video games, and nearly all video games go on sale as well. Can we be for sure most videogames are making money? Well we have other indicators that show that.

Playstation is a Top 5 publisher, sells 50M games a year, the games chart in the end of year charts and have some of the biggest openings. They are making more money than most publishers, which is why they are tripling down on AAA productions: organically growing teams, acquiring more AAA devs and turning their AA games into AAA productions.
 
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Quite interesting that in a span of a few years, SIE is moving away from exclusivity and from story driven single player games towards more GAAS. Two things that were often highlighted in discussions as their strong points. The frequency of new IPs, that was often used as a talking point, has also decreased quite a bit.
 
enpleinjour said:
This is bad logic. We don't get profitability data on most video games, and nearly all video games go on sale as well. Can we be for sure most videogames are making money? Well we have other indicators that show that.

Playstation is a Top 5 publisher, sells 50M games a year, the games chart in the end of year charts and have some of the biggest openings. They are making more money than most publishers, which is why they are tripling down on AAA productions: organically growing teams, acquiring more AAA devs and turning their AA games into AAA productions.
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I’m not suggesting their 1st party productions aren’t profitable, nor am I suggesting that they aren’t raking in revenue hand over fist, but I do question the idea that their 1st-party lineup is the most profitable it’s ever been. It’s not controversial to question that, even as they invest in more studios to produce content.
You won’t see me making that kind of argument for Nintendo, for example, in spite of them being the #1 software publisher in the world, for the exact same reasons; I would hazard a guess that Nintendo 1st-party software, as insanely popular as it is right now across the board, was at its most profitable in the Wii/DS era, just by virtue of lower overall budgets coupled with astronomical sales figures.
 
Jorge said:
Ps5 50%, PC 30%, Mobile 20%
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It seems impossible to reach without first party games releasing day one on PC.

But to be fair, I also doubt they will be able to grow so significantly on mobile in a few years. Nintendo shows that wanting something doesn't mean you will be able to really succeed in this market.
 
Random: Did we ever get numbers for MLB the Show between PlayStation, Nintendo (recent one only), and Xbox platforms? Be curious how well that overall did between the overall platforms available.

That said, I'm really impressed on the PC side of things with the share compared to PS4+PS5. We pretty much knew the games that were releasing on PC platforms were doing really well but that absolutely gives us a much better idea.
 
Alandring said:
It seems impossible to reach without first party games releasing day one on PC.

But to be fair, I also doubt they will be able to grow so significantly on mobile in a few years. Nintendo shows that wanting something doesn't mean you will be able to really succeed in this market.
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This is percentage of releases by platform, not percentage of revenue by platform.
 
Mendinso said:
Did we ever get numbers for MLB the Show between PlayStation, Nintendo (recent one only), and Xbox platforms?
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I am curious about that myself, if only because MLB forced a hand on that one (so I am told) and I wonder if they see anything for it.
 
sixsilum said:
This is what they meant with multiplatform:
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I'm not sure if they are counting LTD to the year or yearly releases. Whats the 10% mobile coming in FY22? And 20%-> 30% in PC from 2022 to 2025 does not strike me as much more PC support.
 
Alandring said:
It seems impossible to reach without first party games releasing day one on PC.

But to be fair, I also doubt they will be able to grow so significantly on mobile in a few years. Nintendo shows that wanting something doesn't mean you will be able to really succeed in this market.
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First party MP definitely coming to PC day one.
 
It's clear that Playstation recognizes that AAA gaming is unsustainable. Rather than doing anything to make/attract software that will attract new customers, they take their AAA MTX GAAS's and release them on PC to try to harpoon more whales.

This move is all about figuring out how to have revenue growth without actually attracting new customers. They've boxed themselves in through years of only marketing to 15-35ish year old males and found that to be a stagnant market segment.
 
Old sorta fan said:
It's clear that Playstation recognizes that AAA gaming is unsustainable. Rather than doing anything to make/attract software that will attract new customers, they take their AAA MTX GAAS's and release them on PC to try to harpoon more whales.

This move is all about figuring out how to have revenue growth without actually attracting new customers. They've boxed themselves in through years of only marketing to 15-35ish year old males and found that to be a stagnant market segment.
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Not a single phrase in these two sentences is correct, and I'm pretty sure many have already told you and shown you the actual data, yet you continue to post like this...
 
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